Sen. Carl Levin speaks to a group of residents from Washington Woods Senior Citizens Housing Thursday.

Daily News/RYAN WOOD

With shirt sleeves rolled up, U.S. Sen. Carl Levin answered questions in Midland Thursday on the possibilities of resuming the military draft and getting agreement soon on a plan to help senior citizens pay for prescription drugs.

Levin also talked about his conditional support for invading Iraq and about business scandals, Palestinian statehood and state Rep. Andy Neumann of Alpena, Democratic state Senate candidate.

Levin, D-Detroit, is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a Senate subcommittee that has investigated the Enron scandal and other U.S. business problems.

He is seeking a fifth six-year Senate term. Challengers are state Rep. Andrew Raczkowski, R-Farmington Hills; Eric Borregard of the Green Party, Doug Dern of the Natural Law Party and John Mangopoulos of the Reform Party.

 It probably would not be necessary to reinstate the military draft if the United States invades Iraq.

 He would support invading Iraq if shown that its leader, Saddam Hussein was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States or to prevent Iraq's use of a weapon of mass destruction  chemical, biological or nuclear  in an attack.

Levin said he thinks Saddam would not use those weapons to launch an attack, but would use them in response if attacked. Levin explained he thinks Saddam wants to stay in power, not commit suicide.

Levin said he has urged President George W. Bush to listen to the concerns of top U.S. military officers about a U.S. attack on Iraq. Two of those concerns are number of U.S. casualties and how the United States would get out of Iraq, Levin said.

 He predicts theres no better than a 50-50 chance differences over proposals for coverage of prescription drug costs will be solved before the Nov. 5 election.

On July 3 in Midland, Levin saw a slightly better than even chance that the Senate and House would agree on a plan before the general election. Between his Midland visits, the Senate failed to approve a Republican plan based on private insurance coverage, such as the House approved, or a Democratic plan guaranteeing optional coverage through Medicare. Levin prefers the Democratic plan. Either plan would be voluntary. The plans' coverage differ.

 "There needs to be a Palestinian state," but no one can negotiate its creation when Israelis are being bombed and shot, Levin said.

He asked the audience to imagine that Canadians were bombing and shooting U.S. residents. "Would we negotiate? No," Levin said.

Also, he said, the Palestinian leadership has been not merely unable to stop terrorism against Israel but been rewarding terrorists families.

 "Were going to do everything we can" to get companies to show executives stock options on company books as a business expense.

"I started this crusade in 1993 and got about 15 votes in the Senate," Levin said. If his amendment had passed, the Enron "fiasco" probably would have been avoided, Levin said.

Congress should give the Securities and Exchange Commission power to levy fines, Levin said.

The SEC is "the only regulatory body that I know of that cant levy a fine" for violation of its regulations, Levin said.

"I made health care my primary focus in the Legislature," was a firefighter and paramedic in Alpena and served on hospital boards, Neumann said.

Neumann serves on the state House health policy committee. He praised a legislative proposal for prescription drug coverage and said the states income-based EPIC prescription drug plan is "a good program if you qualify" but "wasnt funded as well as it should have been" and is too restrictive.

People had "a small window of opportunity" last fall to apply, Neumann said.

About $20 million was left over in the program, and "hopefully this fall well have open enrollment again," Neumann said.

A member of the audience said the program doesnt cover some prescription drugs.

"Hopefully by next year well take that (restriction) off," Neumann said. Physicians and their patients should make the decisions on prescription drugs, he added.

In Alpena, patients told him they cut pills in half because they couldnt afford the cost of taking the prescribed amount, Neumann said. In those cases, "the medicine isnt helping them" and the cost of an ambulance run and emergency care could be $2,000, Neumann said.

Neumann said the U.S. pharmaceutical industry is spending $1 billion a year on research and receiving perhaps half that amount in government grants and tax credits. The U.S. pharmaceutical industry spends $2.5 billion in a year for advertising, "and all of us are paying for it every time we get a (prescription) filled," Neumann added.

Neumann and another state House member, Republican Tony Stamas of Midland, are competing for a state Senate seat in the redrawn 10-county 36th District.

About 40 senior citizens and a few younger people attended the 4 p.m. program at Washington Woods. A similar program was held earlier Wednesday afternoon at Beaverton Manor.